The Hindu Business Line : Bharti Airtel revamps internal IT processes through e-tize

“The e-tize program has led to an improvement in the productivity through the reduction in the overall cycle time via re-engineered processes.” – Mr Jai Menon

Mr Jai Menon

Thomas K. Thomas

New Delhi, Oct. 26 In a bid to make its operations more efficient and cost effective, Bharti Airtel has undertaken a major internal IT programme — e-tize — to revamp its processes and systems through the use of technology. The project is being implemented by IBM through 30 software applications from various vendors including Oracle, Veri Sign and SAP.

“e-tize is not just an IT programme, but a drive for defining and cultivating an e-culture within Bharti Airtel. The program has also made significant contribution to the reduction of both operating and capital expenses incurred by the organization. More than 250 processes have been automated under this project. Bharti Airtel has also witnessed a decrease in its overall real estate costs with infrastructure requirements coming down,” Mr Jai Menon, Director, Customer Service and IT, Bharti Airtel, told Business Line.

Automations done under the e-tize program have resulted in lesser rework due to overall error reduction, which in turn improves employee productivity. For example, applications like Dispatch Requisition Automation has led to a 50 per cent decrease in rework required and therefore the time required for approvals or follow-ups have diminished significantly for the company.

Removing gaps

“The e-tize program has led to an improvement in the productivity through the reduction in the overall cycle time via re-engineered processes, removal of existing gaps and elimination of the non-value adding steps. This has been made possible due to the establishment of a central repository for all organisational as well as functional information. This has also resulted in savings due to lower search costs associated with the activity,” Mr Menon said.

Processes, which are highly complex, totally paper-based and involve multiple parties have been automated. For example, the Supply Chain Management (SCM) transformation, where close to 40 processes were automated, has completely changed the way Bharti Airtel works with its suppliers.

Online works

The company has enabled capabilities like Reverse Auction, Online bidding and Online negotiations with its suppliers to make it a transparent choice of the best bid.

Applications like payroll integration with the system used by the outsourced processor has resulted in savings of approximately 20 per cent in the payout made to the supplier.

“Bharti Airtel has also seen an increase in its revenues due to lower time to market, reduction in payable days and increased working capital,” he added. The company has bagged a global Technology Managers Forum’s 2008 Best Practice Award for this project.

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Bharti Airtel revamps internal IT processes through e-tize